Vernal City, unlike the majority of Utah towns, was not settled by Mormon Pioneers. Captain Pardon Dodds, the Indian Agent for the Uintah Indian Reservation, built the first cabin in the Ashley Valley. Many trappers, prospectors, home seekers and drifters subsequently arrived in the valley, and some stayed to establish homesteads. These enterprising settlers developed a basic irrigation system which enabled them to produce, manufacture, and develop most of the things they needed to survive. The City was incorporated in 1897, had its first oil boom in 1948, and has been a "boom and bust" City ever since.